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Path to 21st century skills

Most people believe that the education system is broken, but the truth is that it is working. It is working according to it’s initial design that was built for an industrial era and commonly accepted economic constraints where resources are often centrally and locally managed.

However in the 21st century where knowledge and resources are increasingly becoming decentralised and globalised, combined with a rapid technology and societal changes we are seeing more self organising systems. These require us to develop different set of skills.

According to recent studies conducted by the US Labor Department “65% of the jobs in the future does not exist yet today”. In the best case, the current education system is designed to train for the 35% of jobs that exists today.

My interest lies in “how to train for the other 65% of jobs in the future” or “how to develop the skills for existing jobs, while cultivating transferable future skills?” Or more importantly “what skills are needed to create these future jobs, today?”

It is for these reasons I am working on the idea of AkaSchool for student to learn the 21st century skills – to start them out on the path toward living purposefully. My personal journey have taken me through 3 different university degrees, in 3 different domains, from 3 different countries and 16 years of diverse experiences ranging from sailing across different oceans, living in China, launching startups and worked with people in more than +18 countries.

My reasons to start AkaSchool are:

1). At 41 years old, it has taken me 20 years to live a purposeful life. I want to offer the opportunity for others to discover themselves and be self directed, to enable them to journey toward their life’s purposeful in a sharper and stronger way through a guided journey.

2). I strive to be the change I want to see in the world. I want to collaborate with doers and change makers to co-create the future we want.

3). Belgium is a top 10 countries in the world with highest youth unemployment rate based on the OECD 2014 data reported by The World Economic Forum with 23% of youth unemployment. Given that education in Belgium is state funded and with estimated 60% (OECD average) of youth continued to tertiary education (after secondary school). Something is rotten.

The recent examples of radicalisation where purposeful living is being repurposed to do evil, further emphasised the need for us to cultivate individuals whom are self directed, whom think critically and are anchored to a community with good intention not only for the community but for the world – to do good and to live a purposeful life.

My idea is to create a space for student to learn how to live a purposeful life. A space also known as school. AkaSchool, where young adults come to learn enduring life skills by doing. These skills include: